I am writing in response to comments made in letters suggesting that the new law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not needed because gay people already have legal protection. As an attorney who has handled a number of employment discrimination cases, I can say that this statement is clearly false.

For one thing, the Equal Protection clauses of neither the U.S. nor the Maine constitutions cover sexual orientation. In addition, there is no state law that prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation except the new law that the religious right is trying to repeal. It is true that a few municipalities have adopted ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, but no community in this area has such an ordinance.

Before the new law, I represented a gay man who was employed in a blue-collar job. He was persecuted by his co-workers because they thought he was effeminate. After a complaint was filed, the investigator made a point of informing me that if our case were based on sexual orientation, it could not succeed legally. The new law would make such harassment illegal.

Some people have expressed fear that this law could lead to the legalization of gay marriage. Anticipating this argument, the Legislature included language in the statute expressly stating that nothing about this new law was to be taken as adding to or changing any existing right to marry in Maine. The law has nothing to do with gay marriage.

Curtis Webber, Auburn